Car-Free=Better Business

Don’t worry Asbury Park. Even though “we’re unique…we’re not…Belmar, Avon, Paris, Copenhagen…” The increase in sales in the car-free district of central Madrid is not unusual. We see this data presented again and again from cities all over the world, and in the US. Not only is business better, so is quality of life.

Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis

Carlton Reid Contributor

Transportation – I have been writing about the business of bicycles for 30+ years.

“Cities which want to boost takings in shops and restaurants should restrict access for motorists, a new study suggests.

The City of Madrid’s imposition of a “low-emission zone” for the Christmas period led to benefits to citizens as well as shops and restaurants – there was a 71% fall in air pollution during the period of the experimental motor-traffic restrictions.”

Streets At The Human Scale

A common complaint from drivers about Asbury Park’s Main Street reconfiguration has been the fear that they won’t be able to get through the city as quickly as possible. Of course we know that traffic calming will actually allow traffic to move more smoothly. But even more, it will become a REAL Main Street. A place for people, not just a way to get through the city. Watch the short video for inspiration!

THE KEY TO SAFE STREETS: FIVE CITIES HUMANIZING STREET DESIGN

FEB 21, 2019

By Katherine Peinhardt and Nidhi Gulati

If we begin to look at streets as places, rather than through-ways, we see them as the deeply human spaces that they are. Places of commerce, work, recreation, and play, streets are one of the most fundamental public spaces with which we interact on a day-to-day basis. Safe streets for walking must be considered as a basic human right, given that, for many, walking is one of the first skills acquired in childhood, and one of the last things let go of in old age.

Watch video and read more…

https://www.pps.org/article/humanize-street-design-for-road-safety

March 9, 2019March 9, 2019

Automobile Supremacy

Does this sound familiar Asbury Park?

Dangerous behavior like failing to yield to pedestrians is almost never enforced. A Wisconsin study showing drivers only yielded to pedestrians 16 percent of the time, indicating that if cops wanted to, they could spend their time doing nothing else but writing failure-to-yield tickets.

A law professor lists a dozen ways that our legal system puts its thumb on the scale for drivers to the detriment of everyone else: transit users, cyclists and pedestrians. We are dominated by car culture and until these laws are repealed we will suffer the consequences.

How Driving is Encouraged and Subsidized — By Law

By Angie Schmitt Mar 6, 2019

Driving is so hard-wired into American culture, life and institutions, that it’s hard to account for all the ways it is subsidized, preferenced or otherwise favored.

Read all 12 ways that drivers rule the road- walkers and bike riders are at the mercy of cars:

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/03/06/heres-how-driving-is-encouraged-and-subsidized-by-law/

March 5, 2019March 4, 2019

Kids Encouraged To Bike And Walk To School in AP

APCSC supports The Alliance For A Healthier Asbury Park.

“The health and safety of all the city’s residents is our highest priority. The Alliance for a Healthier Asbury Park’s efforts to improve health outcomes by promoting healthier corner stores, safe streets for walking and biking, access to health care and transportation and physical activity in our parks is so important and much appreciated,” said Mayor John B. Moor.

February 11, 2019 / Building a Healthier Asbury Park

Encouraging Children to Walk and Bike to School in Asbury Park

These efforts are paying off, to our community’s benefit. In 2017, Bradley Elementary School and Thurgood Marshall Elementary School earned New Jersey Safe Routes to School’s Gold recognition, and in 2018, the City of Asbury Park and Barack Obama Elementary School earned the Gold honor. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School earned the First Step Safe Routes to School award. Additionally, the school travel plans prepared by the EZ Ride team have helped the City of Asbury Park apply for federal and state infrastructure and technical assistance grants to support this work.